Racing Mourns the Loss of Strub : Santa Anita: Officials call him a gentleman and a giant in the sport.

Those in racing who knew Robert Strub, who died early Wednesday morning, remembered him as one of the industry’s gentlemen.

“This may sound self-serving, but he made us No. 1 in the industry,” said Stephen Keller, Santa Anita’s president and chief operating officer. “He had a total orientation toward quality.

“He was an outstanding gentleman, a great family man, a great sportsman and a great person.”

R.D. Hubbard, Hollywood Park’s chief operating officer, echoed the sentiments.

“He truly was one of the great people in racing,” Hubbard said. “All of racing is going to miss him. I was at the Santa Anita stockholders’ meeting on Tuesday, and they did a very nice tribute to him.”

John Mabee, noted thoroughbred owner and breeder and Del Mar’s chairman of the board, knew Strub for many years.

“I was shocked to hear that Bob had passed away,” Mabee said. “You knew it was coming, but it is still shocking. I just wish all his family well. He’s got a wonderful family, and we’ll say a prayer for them.

“Bob was what you would call a giant in the industry. He was a real class act, a real class guy and it’s sad to lose someone of that nature. Racing is certainly going to miss him.

“He did a great job on the Thoroughbred Racing Assn. board (Strub was president of the TRA in 1963-64), and he was just a real giant in the industry.”

Ray Rogers, a longtime Santa Anita and Oak Tree executive, knew Strub for 40 years.

“My first contact with Bob was before I came to Santa Anita,” Rogers said. “He was with Santa Anita and I was working with the City of Arcadia and we had some mutual problems.

“As far as I’m concerned, he was a very hands-on guy. Bob was always thinking of the patron and what we could do to make Santa Anita more attractive to them. He was very dedicated to that.

“Before the start of every meeting, either the day before or the morning of, he would walk throughout the entire plant, then compile a list of things that should be done. He was very thorough and very dedicated to horse racing. He loved it and he should be remembered for his efforts on behalf of the patron.

“I worked closely with him for over 25 years and he was very caring and he had a certain work ethic that he wanted everyone to live up to. He was very much a detail person.”

In an interview earlier this year, Alan Balch, a marketing expert who has worked off-and-on at Santa Anita for about 20 years, echoed Rogers’ statements about Strub’s involvement in the track’s operation; that he was more hands-on than commonly perceived.

“When I first joined Santa Anita, it was said that you didn’t sneeze without getting Bob Strub’s permission,” Balch said. “I hate to think how many meetings I sat in on, just to discuss the quality of the toilet paper in the rest rooms.

“He hasn’t been a neck-wringer. He wanted to be advised of everything that was going on. Once you had his confidence, he’d give you enough rope so that you could hang yourself a hundred times over. When he decided to go ahead with the (1984) Olympic equestrian events at Santa Anita, he turned me completely loose. Contrary to his public reputation of being a conservative, Bob was a risk-taker.”

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